As part of the negotiations for the renewal of their collective agreement, the teachers of the CSQ are demanding changes to the composition of classes and a reduction in their workload.
Posted at 11:13 a.m.
The Central Trade Unions of Quebec (CSQ), which is part of the common front, had filed its common demands, last Friday, in particular on wages and retirement.
On Monday, its federations which represent teachers, professionals and support employees filed their so-called sectoral demands in Quebec, namely those concerning working conditions such as the creation of positions and schedules.
Thus, the Federation of Education Unions (FSE) is asking to adjust the size of the groups, to review the composition of the classes and to lighten the workload of teachers so that they can concentrate on the teaching itself.
The integration into regular classes of students with handicaps, social maladjustments or learning difficulties complicates the task of teachers, who do not always obtain the resources required to help them.
“They are tired of the composition of the class. They want to find a class that will allow them to work for the success of each of their students. They no longer want the regular class, which has become a special class without support, without anyone to help them, to continue to devalue the profession as it does,” summarized Josée Scalabrini, president of the FSE, in an interview.
“What teachers are asking us is: please allow us to do what we went to study for, which is to teach,” added Ms.me Scalabrini.
Support staff and professionals
School support workers, for their part, are calling for the creation of more full-time positions and the end of broken schedules. Many of them work in jobs with few guaranteed hours each week.
They also demand that their jobs be valued.
“We must not disguise working conditions to make them seem better, we need real concrete actions to make them better. We will not be fooled by a smokescreen, the magic will happen when the support staff will be fully recognized. We have to solve these problems and that goes through negotiation, ”said Éric Pronovost, president of this federation.
Education professionals, for their part, are demanding an improvement in their working conditions, in order to be able to fill vacant positions, in particular.
Their federation reports that 500 professional positions are vacant in school service centers throughout Quebec. And the use of the private sector is increasingly frequent in this area, she says.
“The network has increased its use of private professional services, which are extremely expensive and disconnected from the reality of school environments, to make up for this lack. However, it has been documented that the most effective professional services are public services, which are given close to the student, in his environment, in consultation with his or her teacher, the other stakeholders and his parents,” said argued Jacques Landry, president of the Federation of Education Professionals.